At present, the popularity of electronic components for personal and professional use is on the rise. In particular, home/office entertainment equipment, which may include these electronic components, is becoming more prevalent and at the same time more and more complex. One reason for this increased complexity is due, in part, to the increasing number and variety of electronic components now available to an average consumer (or user). In particular, to name a few, there are general purpose computers and computer systems, AM/FM stereo tuners/receivers, phonograph players, amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, loud speakers, including, center channel speakers, subwoofers, surround sound systems, compact disc (CD) players, Mini Disc® (MD)1 players, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, DAT recorder/players, tape cassette recorder/players, VCRs, conventional big screen and high definition (HD) televisions, cable and satellite dish signal sources, set top Internet systems, computer control systems, TiVo® (an MPEG-based storage of television programs without the need for a VCR), and the like. 1Mini Disc® is a registered trademark of Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.
In addition, a user may be confronted with multiple brand names from which to choose, numerous models offered by each company, wide variations among the types of components to combine, compatibility or incompatibility among existing and new equipment, compatibility or incompatibility among present and future interface technology, such as analog and digital, COAX, RCA jacks, optical ports, etc. All of this equipment is referred to hereinafter collectively as electronic components or electronic equipment, with a subset being AV components or equipment, and related accessories.
It is not difficult to imagine that many users of electronic equipment may have difficulty connecting together each and every piece of the above-mentioned equipment. It is desirable to have most, if not all, of the equipment or components connected together, at least in an adequate configuration, so that the equipment performs in accordance with its intended purpose. It also is desirable to take full advantage of most, if not all, of the features made available by each component, without running afoul of incompatibilities between components. For instance, with respect to AV components, a DVD player may have optical input and output ports but the receiver may have only RCA jacks. Therefore, although it would seem most desirable to use the optical inputs and outputs of the DVD player, the user would instead have to use the RCA jacks to accommodate the receiver.
At present, to aid in configuring desired components together, users are resigned to reviewing product manuals for each component, contacting representatives from each vendor of each component, or getting assistance from other users of the same or similar components. Product manuals usually provide little, if any, specific connectivity configuration diagrams, such as wiring configurations, of a user's entire system components. One vendor may not have the information of the other vendors' components, which information may be needed to facilitate proper connection. This may be true especially where a user has old and outdated components combined with new or state of the art components and/or components from different vendors. Finally, the user may have to spend an inordinate amount of time determining the component configuration or worse yet have to rely on other users with the same or less knowledge than the user regarding connecting a system together.
As a result, a user is left with a rat's nest of wiring and input/output connectivity configurations, or options and diagrams that may need to be understood to achieve a working electronic component system.
In addition to the aforesaid difficulties, users of such electronic equipment may desire other information relating to such equipment. For instance, a user may currently own or intend to purchase certain equipment and may desire to know whether the equipment he or she is purchasing is considered to be top-of-the-line or just merely middle-range. The user also may want to determine which components are compatible, or better yet, work best with other components. Finally, the user may desire a “one-stop-shopping” experience and be able to have his or her electronic component system needs analyzed to determine the best combination of components, given certain user parameters. In addition, the user may want to know about the entire range of accessories available for a particular component.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system that provides a way of receiving such information about the user's current and prospective components and provides an appropriate component connectivity configuration to that user. In addition, upon receipt of personal information from the user, there is a need to provide additional suggestions and recommendations to persuade the user to buy enhancements, upgrades, additional or related equipment, as well as related merchandise such as peripherals, video cassettes, tape cassettes, CDs, DVDs, MDs, and the like.